Candid Talk Interview With Brelyn Bowman!
Brelyn Bowman is a preacher of purity, a fashionista, an author, and the wife to Gospel Recording Artist, Tim Bowman, Jr. You may have seen them on Entertainment Tonight, Radio One, The View and many other television and radio networks, spreading a powerful message to everyone that LIVING LIFE FOR CHRIST CAN BE DONE AND WITH STYLE!
Brelyn is only 23 years old, but she is wise beyond her years. When Brelyn and I first started our conversation, I noticed quickly in the conversation that she is not just beautiful, but she is sweet, and VERY HUMBLE! Her humble spirit makes her even more beautiful because she understands it is not about her, but it’s about God!
In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Brelyn to discuss her passion for fashion, the purity certificate that she presented to her father during her wedding reception, and the steps she had to take throughout the years to remain a virgin.
CW:
You have been the owner of Breezy’s Boutiques for 5 years now. Being the daughter of a Pastor, especially in the church, we talk about women being modest. How do you balance out being so fashionable, but modest at the same time?
BB:
Well, growing up I've always had a thing for fashion. I've always had a passion to be unique and different and wanted to be out of the box. Having that background, that passion of it I wanted to make it known that it's okay to be saved, fly and cute all at once. A lot of times, like you said, people think you have to be modest, but that doesn’t mean you need to wear a skirt all the way down to your ankles or your whole face has to be covered. I knew that wasn’t for me. I can find a way to be modest, classy and fly at the same time and still love Jesus.
CW:
That is so amazing that you were able to be fashionable and still have integrity in being grounded in God’s Word at the same time. So, shifting towards being a virgin and the purity certificate, I wanted to talk about what it was like in your household growing up. Did you have friends who were on the same page as you when it came to not having sex?
BB:
One thing that I learned being in the household where the environment is so prone to honoring God is there are certain things you just cannot get by with (laughs). My parents were constantly teaching me the Word of God, and not only teaching me, but showing me the lifestyle that they lived daily. A lot of parents do a lot of talking, but they don't do a lot of living! If you don't do a lot of living, kids are not going to listen to the talking that you do! I learned that more is caught than taught. The more you do something, the more people are going to see, but if you talk about it, chances are, okay show me the proof. I want to see it. I learned that at a young age and really growing up and getting out on my own that right doesn't want to be around wrong and wrong doesn't want to be around right (laughs). Sometimes right may look like they want to be around wrong because wrong is experiencing life, but at the end of the day, right really comes out on top!
CW:
Right (laughs)! But people love blaming the devil for their actions when it’s outside of God’s will, you know. This is why I think it is so important for people to identify their triggers. While you were courting Tim, how did you establish early on your triggers?
BB:
No Netflix and Chill at all. This is so good because I even talk about that in my book. How a lot of people don't identify those triggers. In the beginning, I knew that I wasn't so desperate to be with somebody that I would compromise my triggers and compromise my standards. Because I knew, okay God at the end of the day, Your promise is to me that You will fulfill the desires of my heart if I delight myself in You. I have been delighting myself in God for a while. I said, "Listen Lord, I'm not desperate or I'm not pressed but definitely in a couple of years you're going to have to send somebody" (laughs). What I did was, I sat down with Tim and I told him, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do X, Y, and Z. I always hate to say what worked for me and what didn't work for me because people try to balance that for themselves and everybody has to know what works for them, but Tim and I couldn't kiss. Kissing didn't work out for us. We understood if we do this anymore this is going to go further than what we can handle. We had to decide that kissing is not important to us. It's more important to us to honor God than to kiss.
CW:
So, how did you know Tim was the one?
BB:
One way for sure I knew Tim was the one is because I asked him for something. It was something like a material thing, nothing big, but he told me “NO”, I was like WHAT? Nobody tells me NO. Not my father, the guys I've dated, nobody (laughs). I realized in that moment, if he can start off this strong, there's a possibility that he could be the one. I always tell people, it had nothing spiritual to do with it. It wasn’t anything really deep (laughs). It wasn't anything like that! I don't play with God and I don't play with the Word. I love the Word. I really knew on the spiritual end that Tim was the one when we really started aligning and our purposes started just going together where it was undeniably God. Where it's some moments where you say, "Okay, yeah God that's you" (laughs).
CW:
Okay, so the famous purity certificate that you presented to your father at the wedding reception, I know in your book you stated that your father did not say, "When you get married, I'm going to need you to go to the doctor and get checked out". You wanted to do this to honor your earthly father as you did your spiritual Father, but I know you were not expecting all of the shade! How did you handle the negativity surrounding your story?
BB:
Right. Good question. First, again let me say that my father definitely DID NOT make my sister and I do that! My sister and I, you just have to know us. We are so over the top! We like to do stuff extra and beyond. Let's push the mark, let's just be great. When I went, my doctor actually told me, “I can count on 1 hand how many people come in here to have this done”. I was just like WOW! That’s pretty cool (laughs)! As many patients as she sees, to be on that “1” hand was pretty awesome! With that being said, the first page that posted was the Shaderoom!
CW:
Yes, and it was ALL shade!
BB:
Yep (laughs), they posted all shade. We landed from our honeymoon and our phones went crazy. They just went off over and over probably 40 text messages. It was like did you see this? Did you see that? At first, I thought somebody had died. I thought something was wrong.
Tim and I, in that moment, he said, "Babe, this is the moment that you decide how you're going to build your character". For me that was such a pivotal moment because we had a choice to either show people the love of God or show hate and clap back. In that moment, we decided to show people the love of God. Because a lot of people, when someone attacks you, your first thing is let me attack back. In that moment, we turned the other cheek. We said, "You know what? Forget what they're saying. No matter what they're saying we know what we did honored God".